August 29, 2013

"Chapter 2"
Again, this was an easy read. Not that it was short, but in the sense I could sit down and actually pay attention after a long day. What really stuck out in my mind was the idea of essentialism and idealism. Essentialism being the role as a teacher in delivering a basic body of knowledge that every student should know to become a productive member of society. And the idealism meaning the reality that exists primarily within our own minds. How do we as teachers separate the two? How do we get students to think that it is ok to have our own idea of reality but to be accepting of others realities? I am looking forward to the challenge of teaching my students how to be a productive member of society WITHOUT pushing my values and my ideas onto them.

"Allegory of The Cave"
I had to read this a couple different times, because each time I learned something new and saw a different way to interpret the story

"For how could they see anything but the shadows, if they were never allowed to move their heads"

The way I interpreted this was from a parents view point, I am not a mother but I have a little chihuahua that I am very protective over. If I don't EVER let her walk to the park without her leash on, how can we build trust? How can a mother let their kids make mistakes and hopefully learn from them if she never lets them go out with friends? In class we made some really great points:

• ** Humans by nature are flawed, our purpose is to get closer to perfection **
• This was my favorite thing said and I think about it every day
• Who's definition of perfect to we base off of?
• How do we teach the ones that want to stay in the cave/leave the cave?
• This will be a career long challenge and there will be ways that work and ways that do not

"Toffler on Future of Education"

I enjoyed reading this article, especially knowing all of this was said and written many years ago. It is impressive how much of this is still true and how much is ideal but not real. In a way, when he said "Public school system is designed to produce a workforce for an economy that will not be there" made me angry. Maybe this is true for older students but from the perspective of a kindergarten teacher or even younger, how can I possibly train them for the real world when they are so young? As irritating as it is, I completely agree that by the time a kindergarten class graduates high school things will be outdated. 

August 27, 2013

I started with Chapter 3 from the book. I liked how easy and casual it is to read this book. It kind of took me by surprise that 85% of teachers are white. It did not surprise me that math, science, and social studies is dominated by male teachers and that elementary, language arts, and special education are more female dominated. This statistic reminded me of a discussion we had last year in my Hot Topics in Education class. We talked about how we as teachers need to encourage little girls to love math and science, things that are more male dominated. I think it is very important to get young girls excited about math and science so they can change the statistics and change things up.

Next I read "Why Students Should Study History"
It makes sense and is very obvious to me that we only focus on our own state, or our own country. While some are very involved and educated on what is happening around us, others are completely unaware of what is going on even as close as Colorado. I totally believe that we should know our own history,  but I think to be a better student throughout our education we need to learn from other countries mistakes and/or accomplishments. I really like the idea of letting students choose their own subject and do independent research. Although it would be way more work for the teacher to do prior research of their own, I think it is crucial to let students figure things out on their own with little instruction from the teacher especially with a big research project.

Finally I read "Stallone vs. Springsteen"
This article was really interesting to read. Stallone was all about Nationalism, kicking ass and taking names, and then Springsteen was about Patriotism, virtues of family, work, and loyalty. My boyfriend loves the Rambo movies, and I do not mind them, but it definitely gets me pumped and excited to be an American. But then there is Springsteens view and his values. I agree with him way more than I do the Stallone mentality.